Lapin DB

What lives in your freezer?

Mine has—or rather had—frozen peas, two saddles of rabbit, boned, Mexican-style chorizo, egg whites, dashi (Japanese fish stock), and some spinach, but now it’s just the final two.  Do you ever wonder whether the contents of your freezer say anything about you as an eater or a person?  I once had a party and one of my guests went digging through my freezer in search of ice.  I don’t like ice, don’t drink cocktails much, and never anticipated someone else in my house drinking cocktails.   (I’m that kind of hostess.)  So instead of ice, he found broccoli soup, frozen green mush, that is, which had been languishing for months.  It was embarrassing.  He was kind of cute, too.

Either way, MF is moving house and therefore destroying all that freezer evidence.  The aforementioned egg whites were made into meringue (coming soon), the spinach and the dashi will become something else tonight, and the rest formed the primary components of the dish above.  The dish, by the way, has been titled by its eater, who, in a great show of humility, decided that it be named after himself.   Ergo, the plate above shall hence be called Lapin DB.   Why the word for rabbit must be in French (lapin) I’m not quite sure, but lest it is not already evident, I am not the decision-maker here.  Besides, DB has been a dear friend, whose presence has (almost) always been appreciated and will most certainly be sorely missed.  If he wants to name his lunch, by all means he should name his lunch.  And the next time I go over to his house for lunch, I’ll be certain to request that my meal be named after me, too.

As for the thing itself—rabbit stuffed with fresh chorizo and served over a minted pea purée—I understand that the animal in question may have a bit of a reputational problem, sitting uncomfortably between Hickville roadkill and frou frou Frenchie in the land of Freedom Fries.  Truthfully, I don’t know much about any of this, but rabbit does taste very good.  A dense white meat, extremely low in fat, and with a somewhat deeper flavor than chicken but still quite clean and pure, it’s one of my favorites.  There are other benefits as well.  As demand and supply are both relatively low, there is little incentive for producers to raise rabbits in those icky, scaled up (often inhumane) industrial conditions with hormones and antibiotics and other things you’d never want to eat yourself, which I think is a very good thing for both the bunnies and their eaters.  If, however, it is the cute factor that is disconcerting, I’d suggest considering the experience an opportunity to recognize that something living, something with a face, died so that you might eat.  If one is going to eat animals, a measure of respect for their lives now gone is certainly in order.  And all of that said, if rabbit is still very much a problem for you, butterflied chicken breasts will work beautifully with this method as well.

Regardless of what meat I may have persuaded you to try, a few notes on cooking from the freezer: The best way to defrost things is to do it in a water bath.  Your rabbit parts or chicken breast or what should be in a waterproof container, like a plastic zip top bag.  Fill a big bowl with cool water and place in the bag.  The contents will float.  I usually like to place something on top to weight it down a bit (usually, another dish I haven’t yet put in the dishwasher), but I’m not certain this is necessary.  Turn from time to time, and allow perhaps an hour for the thing to become defrosted, though the time will certainly depend upon the size of your frozen goods.  Of course, if you are very clever, you can defrost things in the refrigerator overnight, but I’ve never been that good a planner.

Though I generally try to test the things that appear on this website at least twice, it should be said that I have only made Lapin DB once.  There is only so much rabbit one can keep in the freezer.   And besides, two of us ate it, and two of us liked it.  I remain confident in the method, and it must be said that the ingredient mix was really, really good, so the decision-maker (DB, that is) thought (dictated, that is) that I should share it with you.  I’m just following orders.

Lapin DB – aka saddle of rabbit with chorizo + a minted pea purée

For the rabbit:  2 rabbit saddles, boned  |  kosher salt + freshly ground pepper  |  1 clove garlic  |  2 tsp olive oil  |  1 link fresh chorizo  |  1 tbsp chopped parsley  |  1 tbsp bacon fat or butter

For the pea purée:  1 tbsp butter  |  1 clove garlic  |  1 cup frozen peas  |  kosher salt + freshly ground pepper  |  leaves from several sprigs of mint (I used about 6 huge leaves)

Take the rabbit out of the freezer or fridge and allow to come to room temperature, about an hour.   If it’s been frozen, leave in a cool water bath, turning from time to time. Season well with salt and pepper on all sides.

Meanwhile, make the stuffing: Mince the garlic and set a smallish skillet over medium heat.  Add the olive oil, do not swirl the pan, and then put the garlic directly in it.   Let the garlic fry lightly for a minute or two in the oil.  Remove the casing from the chorizo, crumble, and then add to the garlic pan.  Smoosh up and stir from time to time.  You want the meat to be cooked through but not overdone. This takes a surprisingly short amount of time.  About 7 minutes for me.  Then scrape into a bowl with the parsley, stir well, and leave to cool.

Now start the pea purée: Heat the butter in a small pot with a lid over medium low heat.  Mince and then add the clove of garlic. Let fry lightly for a minute or two.  Then dump in the frozen peas, season with salt + pepper, stir once, clap on the lid, and turn the heat down to low.  Leave for about 5 minutes, until the peas are soft. Whenever they are done, remove the lid and leave to cool.

To stuff the rabbit: Place as much of the stuffing as you can on the thick side of the meat, and then fold the thinner piece (the belly flap) over, tucking it under a bit to make a pretty shape.  Tie with a couple of pieces of kitchen string along the length of each piece and tie once around the length so that the pieces will have a relatively uniform shape.

Heat the oven to 400 F/200 C, wipe out the chorizo skillet, and place over high heat.  After a couple of minutes, add the bacon fat or butter and brown the rabbit saddles on all sides, turning only when golden brown, about 4 minutes per side.  When this is done, transfer rabbit to a very shallow roasting pan and finish cooking in the oven, 10 minutes.  Now is a good time to run the peas through a food processor (or smoosh them with a fork), adding the mint and salt, pepper, melted butter, or water as needed.

When the rabbit is done, remove from oven and allow to rest for at least 5 minutes before cutting off the kitchen string and slicing.  Serve over a small mound of the peas.

Serves 2